


The Badge

by ThePyromaniacEngineer



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Borderlands Gift Exchange 2018, Intern Rhys, M/M, Meet-Cute, Programmer Handsome Jack, Vasquez is mentioned because you know I just had to, You can see the quality start to decline but I did my best, Young Angel (Borderlands), first day on the job, vaughn is mentioned as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 07:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17137964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePyromaniacEngineer/pseuds/ThePyromaniacEngineer
Summary: This is my gift for the Borderlands Gift Exchange 2018!  a Rhack Meet Cute with first day on the job Rhys was requested and AUs were fine so I decided to keep Jack as a programmer and throw in a young Angel.





	The Badge

**Author's Note:**

> I know the quality kind of declines as it gets to where the dialogue is, but I was rushing as I had so much school work this was a last minute thing, haha.

Rhys glanced down at the stack of papers in his hand, double checking the office number before getting off the elevator. His first day working at Hyperion… hadn’t exactly been what he had expected. Sure, he was only an intern at the moment, but he hadn’t thought he’d just be written off as an errand boy. Apparently, as soon as his identification badge had been seen the department had decided he’d be doing all of the running around for the day. Hopefully, it was just some odd initiation thing and he wouldn’t be stuck running around Helios the rest of his time as an Intern. 

He was still upset about the fact that he hadn’t been selected for the programming internship, but he’d take what he could get. Even if it stuck him in middle management. At least Vaughn had managed to get into his choice of departments, he’d have to stop by accounting later to see how his friend was doing.

He looked up from the documents to see what department he was in, almost wanting to laugh at the irony of it all. So he had made it to programming his first day…. Just not how he had wanted to. Still, maybe he could somehow find a way to impress someone with a bit of power here and land a better internship. Wishful thinking, but anything could happen. 

Rhys was navigating his way around the floor to the various offices he needed to make stops at, grimacing as he recalled the instructions he was given. A raven-haired man with too much gel had told him to not bother coming back if he couldn’t deliver them all; Had suggested he take a trip out an airlock if he was that incompetent. 

Already he hated the other man, could tell he’d do nothing but make his life at Hyperion more difficult than it had to be. Entitled bastard. 

Rhys glanced around again to try to see where his next stop would be, a stack of papers for a ‘John Lawrence’, when he suddenly felt something collide with his leg. Looking down he saw a young child with black hair and bright blue eyes which were wet with unspilled tears. No one else seemed to notice at all.

He kneeled down to be level with her, “Hey… It’s okay. Are you lost? My name’s Rhys.”

The girl seemed to be fixated on his ID badge, staring at it as if to make sure it was there, “ ‘M Angel…. Can’t find my dad…”

Rhys gave her a small smile, “I’ll help you look for him then. Do you know his name?”

“I ‘unno.”

He had to resist the urge to sigh. Instead, he shoved the rest of the papers into the messenger bag slung over his shoulder, standing up and offering his hand to Angel. “Can you tell me what he looks like?” 

Angel just shrugged again, trying to grab for Rhys’ badge, “Girls say he’s ‘handsome’.”

Rhys raised an eyebrow at that, but glancing around again he realized that did help significantly narrow it down. He unclipped his badge from his shirt and handed it to her to look at and keep her somewhat occupied. 

It was a half hour of walking around the floor with the girl, now carrying her as she had grown tired before he finally made some sort of progress. A woman passing had stopped him, questioning why he had Angel.

“Oh good, you know who she is?”

She looked over him as though he had lost his mind, “Of course. We all do. She’s the daughter of the head programmer.”

Rhys did his best to keep his nerves in check, nodding slightly, “Right…. Thanks. I’ll bring her over to his office then…” 

He made his way to the office as quickly as possible without waking Angel up. The secretary raised her head to tell him to leave unless he had an appointment, but her face softened when she saw Angel, “Go right in. He’s worried about her.” She got up to pull the door open, letting Rhys slip inside.

The programmer had his back to Rhys when he entered, yelling into his echo device.

“Um… excuse me, sir..?”

“What?!” Jack whirled around to face the source of the voice, his eyes widening as he saw Angel, quickly hanging up the call. He didn’t waste any time before moving to take his daughter from the stranger, looking him up and down with suspicion.

Rhys was frozen in shock at first, Angel hadn’t been kidding when she said her dad was commonly described as handsome. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the man’s own, blue and green staring at him with distrust.

Angel had started to stir from being transferred, her eyes blinking open sleepily, a smile on her face when she saw her dad. She looked back at Rhys, giving a small wave. 

Jack, however, still wasn’t so sure the man could be trusted, “Angel, sweetheart. Who is this? Why did he have you?”

“Reese… You said if I got lost to find the secure men..”  
“Security, Angel. He isn’t security. Men like Wilhelm are.”

She tilted her head slightly in confusion, “He has a badge… You said to find the men with badges…”

Jack’s eyes widened just slightly and he chuckled as he realized the mistake, “Badges as in police badges, not identification badges.”

Rhys was ready to leave, feeling awkward in the midst of the small reunion. But he remembered the papers before he could leave, reaching into his bag, “Do you happen to be John Lawrence?”

Jack shifted his hold on Angel to reach a hand out for the papers with a slight grimace on his face, “Call me Jack, honey… Thank you, for keeping Angel safe. You should come by sometime for lunch. Angel seems to like you and that’s enough for me.”

Rhys left the programming department with a bit of a skip in his step, his first day had turned around surprisingly well. 


End file.
